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CAROLMACY
Sometimes the narrator can be on the stage, but lending support from a fixed position. Sometimes she says very little because the actors are comfortable taking risks and improvising both verbally and non-verbally, so they respond very quickly to cues from the narrator. Other times the narrator needs to support the students by moving the story along, reminding the actors what needs to be said and encouraging them to speak up without interrupting the flow of the story. In the above video, we see the narrator as participant, actually reacting to things that happen along with the actors as a way of keeping them in character and giving them cues about appropriate reactions in each scene.
In this case, the actors had been focused entirely on dramatizing poetry and myths from Puerto Rico for several months. When we returned to the folktale we had started four months earlier, we had just one rehearsal before we shared it with an audience. As a result, I chose to be onstage with the students guiding them along. That said, it is a valuable technique to use with students who need extra support in front of an audience.
Video by Calen Nakash
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